


Iron Daughter

by WinterHuntress



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom, Thor (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers - Freeform, Families of Choice, Gen, Nicknames, Pepper Worries, Pranks, Stark Industries, Stark Tower, Team Bonding, Training, a bit of angst, but also crack, inventions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 16:14:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4673132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterHuntress/pseuds/WinterHuntress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So much for having the perfect plan, the city was under attack and it had to have happened on the very day that Artemis tried to run away.</p><p>Fighting to survive she finds her new life when she is discovered to be the biological daughter of a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New York

The sun was bright and hot, and Artemis Black could already feel it starting to burn her pale freckled skin as she walked though central park in New York. It was the 4th of May 2012 and the spring breeze was whipping her fringe into her eyes as she walked through the park towards the subway entrance.

As she walked the straps on her old leather satchel dug into her shoulder, she has packed her few belongings that morning along with all the money she had secretly saved from her small allowance at the orphanage. She reached the entrance and began to descend in the crowd of people to the cool of the underground. She pulled the collar of he worn leather jacket up and let her fringe cover more of her face, now almost fully concealed behind a battered pair of aviators, as she boarded a train that would take her further into the city.

Artemis was determined, this time she would not be found, she would get away from the orphanage and her hopelessly meaningless life there and live on the streets. She was smart and she new how to survive on the streets of New York.

The train was packed and she was glad to get off and walked swiftly out of the station keeping her head down so as not to be recognised by anyone. They were sure to search for her, but this time she would not be shipped off to yet another orphanage. This time was different, she had learned from her failed attempts of escape, get away but stay hidden, after three weeks they would give up the search and she would be free.

........

Artemis was walking along the streets close to Stark tower when she first heard the shouts. She looked around immediately on edge, surely they couldn't be looking for her already, she had only been gone a few hours and had created a good cover story for being away all afternoon.

As her eyes searched the streets dreading the approach of authorities she saw people staring into the sky and others pointing towards Stark tower.

Following their gaze Artemis saw the cause of the commotion. From the top of stark tower a beam of icy blue energy shot into the sky, the sky began to darken around it and a circle was opening slowly revealing what looked like deep space.

That's when it all went wrong. Spaceships began to fly out of the portal and shoot at everything in sight. Cars were exploding in the street and crowds of people began running for cover.

So much for having the perfect plan, the city was under attack and it had to have happened on the very day that Artemis had tried to run away.

One of the ships charged down the street where Artemis stood, it looked a bit like a flying jet-ski, without a seconds thought Artemis picked up a piece of rubble,aimed and threw it at the alien driver hitting it square in the face. She ducked behind an overturned café table with a grin as the flying jet-ski swerved off course, crashed into a nearby building and exploded in a ball of fire.

Survival instincts kicked in and she ran hunched over along the street, there were people everywhere running and screaming in panic. Heart racing Artemis headed towards a shop front that had a smashed window, the staff had clearly abandoned it. _Bingo._

Artemis Stepped inside and took a quick glance around, pulling her satchel from her back. She found some bottles of water and as much food as she could and crammed it into her bag. Grabbing a few energy bars she left the shop and ventured back out onto the streets.

The portal hole in the sky was now covering a huge expanse of sky above Stark Tower. The sky was filled with those jet-ski things and now there were also gigantic battleships exiting the portal like huge whales swimming through the sky. Aliens were in the streets now and were mowing down the people as the tried to run.

Artemis ran towards a deserted side ally, ducking as a shot flew over her head. A woman fell to the ground in front of her with a wound to her chest. As blood pooled around her body she looked up at Artemis with fear in her eyes. Artemis rolled to the side as an explosion sent rocks flying and finally she reached the side alley. It was dark and she ran down it as fast as she could.

She crouched in the alley catching her breath and trying to think of what to do. When she looked up at the sky she could see the portal growing, ships streaming out of it with increasing speed. The noise of fighting was deafening as they flew farther out into the city.

Artemis paused and looked up at the sky again. _Of course that was the answer_. As the aliens spread out to take over the city they would ignore the centre that they had already covered. The safest place to run to was the eye of the storm.

With this thought Artemis gathered her wits and sneaked slowly back along the alleyway towards Stark tower. She kept to the shadows as she moved towards the open street, glancing out into the chaos when she reached it in order to determine the best route to take in order to stay hidden.

The street was a mess of wrecked cars and smashed buildings, there were also corpses everywhere, police and civilians alike. The fighting was moving away down to the next block and Artemis took the opportunity to dart out and hide behind a smoking car body, she continued weaving her way through the wreckage until she reached the other side of the street. There was still a block between her and the tower and she ran towards another alleyway to take cover in the shadows once again.

She was almost there when shots came out of nowhere whizzing over her head. She looked to the side and saw an alien firing at her, her distraction caused her to trip over a body lying on the ground and she fell, her jeans tore and blood began to ooze from the nasty cut on her knee. Cursing she scrambled behind another wrecked car and pulled the gravel out of the cut. She could hear the alien advancing across the street and she pulled herself up and ducked down as she ran for the cover of the alley.

She heard the blasts of energy from the aliens weapon hitting the wall nearby as she skidded around the corner and into the shadows. She had just made it around the corner when she collided with another body and fell to the ground again adding to the many cuts and bruises she had already sustained from her previous fall. The ally was dark and she squinted trying to get the hair out of her face in order to see who she had run into. A strong hand grabbed her arm and pulled her further into the alley, raising her to her feet.

“What the hell are you still doing here? they told us the place was cleared of civilians.” The man who spoke was taller than her, he had short light brown hair and piecing blue eyes and was wearing what appeared to be some kind of armour suit with a quiver of arrows strapped to his back and a bow in his hand.

“Well in case it wasn't obvious I'm trying not to get killed.” Artemis snapped sarcastically as she moved to continue down the alleyway but he grabbed her arm.

“Hey wait, you can't just run off like that, you'll end up dead within seconds” he said. “Stay here, keep out of sight.”

He drew an arrow from his quiver, peered quickly out into the street and fired. The energy blasts ceased, he had clearly killed the alien that had been following Artemis.

“What are you gonna do anyway? Take on these bastards yourself and hope you survive?” he asked as he returned from the corner.

“Well that's worked just fine so far.” she replied. Glaring at him.

He looked confused by her response, clearly he had not expected such resistance from a girl of fifteen. However his attention was drawn away from her by a voice in his earpiece.

“Hawkeye where the hell are you? we've got a whole army of these things coming down Broadway.”

Hawkeye pressed his earpiece “I'll be there as soon as I can, I've been sidetracked by a couple of strays.”

He looked at Artemis “Where were you going before you ran into me?” he asked.

“Stark Tower.” she said.

“Why?” he looks confused again.

“Well whatever is keeping that portal thing open is coming from the tower, so they're not gonna knock it down. And they have already killed everyone within two blocks of it so they are hardly gonna look for me there.” Artemis stated.

Hawkeye looked at her for a second and then grinned, “well come on then, you're clearly smarter than you look, lets get you there then I can get back to killing these bastards.”

“Well you're doing a marvellous job with that” she said sardonically, and gestured to the sky filled with flying alien battleships.

He rolled his eyes at her and they began to run down the alleyway. When they reached the next street it was deserted and the sounds of fighting were not as closes as before. Artemis could see the tower at the end of the block as they ran down the pavement towards it. They were halfway there when out of nowhere another alien ship came charging down the street firing at them. Artemis dive rolled out of the line of fire and picked up a rock the size of a tennis ball. She aimed for the driver, she couldn't see Hawkeye but hoped he got out of the way in time. The rock hit the side of the aliens helmet and the ship swerved off course however this time it is not enough to make it crash and she had to duck for cover.

Hawkeye had swerved to the side as he pulled out an arrow and notched it, he turned to see the young girl hit the alien in the head with a rock and how the flying chariot almost lost control. As she ducked he let his arrow fly into the skull of the driver. The tip exploded upon contact and brought the craft crashing down. He finally understood what she had meant by her earlier comment. She was a bloody good shot.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her up. Together they continued to run towards the tower. Then there was a flash and lightning stuck the top of the tower. They skidded to a halt and stared up.

A few moments later one of the windows at the top of the tower shattered and a figure fell towards the ground. It must have been Tony Stark because as they fell they were followed by other falling pieces that seemed to attach themselves to the figure until he was wearing a suit pf red and gold armour. He was barely fifty feet from the ground when he stopped falling and flew back into the sky hovering at the broken window and sending a blast of energy into the building before speeding away into the distance.

“Hawkeye we need you to keep the area around the tower clear. We are trying to shut down the portal.” the voice in his earpiece said.

“OK, I'm outside the tower can someone give me a lift up high?” he said as he pressed his earpiece.

Within a few seconds the lightning had stopped and a tall blond figure wearing a red cape landed before them, he grabbed Hawkeye by the back of his collar and flew up into the air.

Once she was alone again Artemis took cover behind a pile of rubble. She found a piece of rock and grabbed it in case another flying chariot came past any time soon. She crouched outside the tower and pulled a chocolate bar from her satchel, it had been a few hours since she had left the orphanage and she had barely eaten. The sounds of fighting became louder and she stuffed the rest of the bar into her mouth, quickly slinging her satchel back onto her shoulders getting ready to run at any second.

The next thing she knew there was chaos as a huge green monster that must have been the Hulk came tearing around the corner. It leaped into the air and jumped from building to building until it was on top of an apartment block. The aliens seemed to be distracted by it, there were about fifty of the chariots surrounding the Hulk and firing at it with their energy guns. This seemed only to enrage the hulk even more, he began smashing the ships out of the sky with his bare hands. One of the mangled chariots came flying towards to ground where Artemis was standing. She ran for cover and dived out of the way just in time as the chariot exploded, but the shock waves sent her flying and she landed just beside a burnt out bus.

Artemis looked down at herself and winced. _Well this day just kept getting better and better_. She rolled into a sitting position and leaned against the bus panting. There was a large shard of metal embedded several inched into her thigh. She gasped, it was in too deep to be easily removed, besides she knew it would bleed like hell once the shard was taken out so it would just have to stay there until she could get help.

She looked up at the portal cloud and noticed that it was beginning to shrink. The energy from the tower seemed to be slowly ebbing away. A few seconds later she saw Iron Man flying towards the portal, he was carrying something. After a moment Artemis realised that it was a missile. _Holy shit. That could blow up the entire island of Manhattan_.

She watched as Iron Man flew higher and disappeared into the portal which was now closing rapidly, there was movement close by and she saw Hawkeye and the red cape man approaching, they were soon followed by a man that could only be Captain America, and a red headed woman in a black catsuit. They hadn't seen her as they were all focused of the closing portal.

“Come on Stark.” Said the woman.

When Artemis looked up, the portal was almost completely gone from the sky, it disappeared completely and the team of people nearby looked dismayed. Then far above them they could see a figure falling from the sky.

“Son of a gun.” the captain smiled.

Hawkeye looked concerned, “He's not slowing down” he said suddenly.

There was a blur of green as the hulk jumped towards the falling figure and caught him before smashing to the ground and laying him out in front of the others. The hulk ripped the mask off of Iron Man's helmet. There was silence. Then the hulk roared.

The man in the suit came around with a start. “What happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.”

They were all so distracted by the scene that none of the team noticed the small group of aliens approaching silently from the end of the street.

Artemis saw them coming closer and pulled herself up, she ran between the team and the aliens and hurled a stone at the leader of the group. As usual she managed to hit it in the face, she yelled and picked up another rock hurling it at the next alien and successfully alerting the team to their presence.

Her strength began to fade fast, as she threw her third rock an arrow whistled past her and buried itself in the head of one of the aliens, she had felled two of them already before the gunfire blazed meeting the energy blasts, Artemis tried to dodge the blasts but her injury made her too slow and she felt a blast graze her shoulder. As the last alien fell she felt the pain return as her adrenaline disappeared and she collapsed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First Fic let me know what you think :)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it there's more to come.
> 
> I will try to update as regularly as possible.


	2. Mystery Girl

“Kid?” the yell came from Hawkeye as he rushed to her.

“Who is she?” Black Widow was there a moment later.

“I don't know, but she just saved all our lives.” the Captain leaned over to look at the young girl lying in the rubble.

“She's still breathing, quick we have to get her help.” Hawkeye carefully scooped Artemis up and began to carry her towards the tower. The others followed, Thor helped Tony to his feet and supported him as they followed everyone into Stark tower.

…….

They reached the medical floor of Stark tower, of course Pepper had insisted on including it in the design, Tony was constantly injuring himself.

The girl was still unconscious and Hawkeye had not yet explained why he seemed to know her. Tony wondered why the girl had been there at all, the blocks around the tower were supposed to have been cleared of civilians. He also wondered why, when she was clearly badly injured, she had run at the Chitauri and somehow managed to knock two of them down.

Tony left the others to get out of his suit and was then forced to undergo a medical examination before he was allowed to return. He turned a corner and saw Barton and Romanov standing at the door of one of the rooms. They turned as he walked up.

“Hey what's happening?” he asked.

Barton still looked slightly worried. “They pulled a lot of shrapnel out of her.” he said, holding up a shard several inches long about the size of Tony's palm. “But the doctors said she should be OK once they get all the cuts cleaned up.

“Who is she?” Tony asked looking into the room and seeing the young teenage girl lying in a hospital bed with several machines hooked up monitoring her.

Barton shook his head slowly “I don't know, I found her this afternoon in an alleyway about a block away. She is smart... was running towards the tower, said that it was the safest place to be because the portal was coming from the tower so the Chitauri wouldn't destroy it, and they had already taken over these blocks so they wouldn't be searching them any time soon.”

Tony nodded. Of course it made sense but the idea that a teenager would be able to think of that in the chaos while everybody around them panicked was impressive.

“And she is a bloody good shot.” Barton finished smiling wryly.

…….

Artemis was lying in a hospital bed on the fiftieth floor of Stark tower, apart from the heart monitor and oxygen tube attached to her nose she looked peaceful, her auburn hair was spread out on the pillow. A silver amulet hung on a leather cord around her neck, a wolf howling in a crescent moon. Her skin was pale, making her freckles clearly visible.

The old leather satchel she had been wearing was sitting on the bedside table still unopened. Tony had felt that going through her bag without permission was unnecessary, after all the doctor had assured him that she would be awake within a few hours.

He stood next to the bed looking at the young face before him, seeing her unconscious brought the reality of the attack flooding back into his mind. Anger boiled up inside him and he wondered how many more kids were lying in hospital now. He couldn't bare to think about it, once again he had failed to protect people. Tony turned away trying to ward off his feeling of guilt.

“JARVIS, run a search on her face see if you can find out who she is.” Tony told the AI.

“Very good Sir.”

The heart monitor continued to beep in the silence. Tony glanced back at her before he left shaking his head. He would know who the girl was soon enough.

“Let me know when she wakes, won't you.” he said to Jarvis as he left the room.

…….

The Avengers were gathered around on the common area a few floors above. They turned when Tony walked in, Barton rose from a sofa that he had been perched on and looked at Tony questioningly.

“She's still out cold.” he stated in answer to the unvoiced question on everyone's mind.

“I still don't get it.” the Captain said suddenly “I mean, what is a teenage kid doing in the middle of New York city on their own? And why didn't she follow the crowds when the cops were evacuating the streets?”

“Well you can ask her yourself when she wakes up Cap.” Hawkeye looked tired. The others had obviously been interrogating him for information about the mystery girl while Tony was away.

Tony walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink. He pulled out his phone and called Pepper.

“Tony, are you OK? Are you hurt? What the hell has been happening?” Pepper was worried sick and he couldn't really blame her for it.

“I'm fine Pep, we stopped the invasion, come home as soon as you can we will need all the help we can get cleaning up the city.”

“I am on my way back now, I should be there in a few hours at the most, don't go getting into any trouble before I get back” she warned.

“Promise, see you soon Pep, I'll get JARVIS to send you everything we've got so you can have a look over it all on your way.”

“OK I'll see you soon Tony.”

The call ended and he slid the phone into the pocket of his jeans, picking up his drink he walked over to the others sitting on the couches.

“So what are we going to do with Reindeer Games then?” he asked the room in general.

There was silence as everyone exchanged glances, finally Thor spoke up.

“I shall return my brother to Asgard where he will serve just punishment for his chimes against the people of Midgard.”

“I still want to beat the shit out of him for fucking around with my mind like that.” Hawkeye was clenching his fist as he spoke and everyone could tell that he was more than a little bit disturbed by what had happened.

“Even so Loki will face trial, the Allfather will decide on his sentence, Loki's crimes against your people are only some of the charges brought against him.”

The others considered this and decided to leave it at that, Thor was stronger than all of them after all and there was sense in what he said even if Barton didn't like the idea.

…….

Pepper sat on one of the couches of the private jet, a table was pulled close to her and the surface lit up with holographic images as she sifted through the piles of information JARVIS had brought up for her. The media were already running wild jumping to conclusions about who was to blame for the alien invasion. Several of them were convinced that the Avengers were to blame and the fact that Loki had used Stark Tower to set up his portal didn't help the matter.

Pepper began flicking through the media and security footage from the attack, finding useful bits of recording that would help with any public awareness campaign for the Avengers. After all it was important to clear up any doubt in the public mind as to the role the Avengers had in stopping the invasion.

JARVIS had briefly shown her a picture of the young girl who was apparently currently lying unconscious on the hospital floor of Stark Tower. Pepper however had more pressing matters to deal with than the identity of the unknown girl who would most likely be awake and able to tell then herself within a few hours.

She was filtering through the footage of the first few minutes of the invasion, the streets were a mess, shop windows shattered. Pepper was relieved that there was no sound as some of the images the holograms showed were horrific. The current camera was showing a street about two blocks away from the Tower that was one of the first in the firing line.

Pepper could barely watch as the Chitauri's flying chariot flew along the street shooting at everything in sight. Not wanting to watch as the people in the street were shot down while running for cover, Pepper was about to move on to the next piece of footage when the chariot suddenly swerved out of control and crashed, exploding spectacularly from the high speed collision.

“Oh,” pepper murmured to herself “JARVIS pull up all the other security footage from that crash.”

More images of the street popped up immediately and Pepper expanded one that had a closer view of the chariot, she watched the footage as the chariot flew along then there was a blur of movement and the driver staggered before the chariot lost control. She slowed the footage down and played it again this time making out what appeared to be a rock flying through the air, hitting the driver right between the eyes.

Pepper played it a few more times, before she continued sifting through the different images trying to find one of side of the street where the rock came from. She soon found the security camera from one of the shops, the image was relatively clear and showed people running and screaming, panicking. One girl however stopped, picked up a piece of rubble and took a second to aim before throwing it with all her might at the driver. Well that was a surprise, Pepper had been expecting it to be one of the Avengers, probably Hawkeye knowing his proficiency with flying objects, but then when she thought about it, he would have just used an arrow, as he was unlikely to be out of arrows this early in the battle.

Pepper played the footage again in slow motion trying to get a good shot of the girls face. Before the girl got up again after sheltering from the explosion behind a café table, she turned still crouched and for the first time Pepper could make out her face, she froze the image and zoomed in to get a closer look.

“Oh. My. God.”


	3. Shawarma

Clint sat sprawled back with his feet resting on the back of Nat's chair slowly picking at his food. No one was bothering to talk, they all just sat around either eating or, in Tony’s case, starting at nothing.

The small Shawarma joint was empty apart from the Avengers crowded around one table and a few staff half heartedly sweeping up the rubble left in the wake of the invasion.

Clint let his gaze drift around the table, Nat was leaning on the edge of the table slowly chewing while lost in thought. Steve looked as though he was about to dose off with the his elbow resting on the table, head in his hand. Thor was next to him and was making short work of his fifth wrap, while Tony was idly staring at Bruce like it had just hit him that he had died and been scared back to life by the man sitting next to him. Bruce meanwhile looked absolutely exhausted as he slowly munched on his food.

They continued eating in silence for some time when Tony’s phone suddenly beeped. He pulled it out and tapped the screen.

“JARVIS, buddy what have you got for me?” he asked perking up a bit.

“Sir, Miss Potts has asked me to send you this, she stated that you all aught to watch it right away.” the AI stated calmly. Tony pressed something on the phone and a hologram popped up above it.

“OK Thanks bud, play it when your ready.”

What appeared to be a security footage began to play and everyone watched in interest. It was a street a few blocks from the tower, from the beginning of the invasion. As they watched one of the Chitauri's flying chariots flew down the street leaving destruction in its path. As the people in the street began to flee, being shot down as they ran the chariot suddenly swerved out of control and crashed in a ball of fire.

There was a general murmur of interest from the avengers as the video changed to another angle, this time closer up on the chariot before it crashed, the clip was slowed down so that they could see what caused the crash. From somewhere off camera a rock the size of a tennis ball, probably a piece of rubble from the street, came flying and smashed into the face of the driver right between the eyes causing it to loose control of the chariot and crash.

Clint's mind was racing as he began to piece things together. Of course, it all made sense now.

“Oh,” he muttered. Nat shot him a glance before she quickly focused back on the footage as the camera changed again.

This time it was a security camera from outside of a café, people were running screaming. Clint recognised Artemis right away as she stopped, grabbed a piece of rubble off the ground and aimed before sending it flying right into the face of the alien driver and bringing the whole chariot crashing down. They all watched with bated breath as she ducked behind an overturned table sheltering from the explosion. Then she turned away and the footage paused as the camera got a good view of her face for the first time.

The image zoomed in on her face and there was a collective rumble of surprise from the rest of the avengers.

Nat was looking at Clint questioningly but before he could say anything Tony spoke up.

“Wow, OK, I was not expecting that.” Tony looked to the others as if to validate this sentiment.  
Nat spoke up next before anyone else could say anything.

“How did you know it was her?” She questioned Clint. 

All the eyes at the table swivelled his way in interest. The captain was suddenly wide awake again, his full attention focused on Clint. Tony on the other hand looked at the archer in surprise.

“Wait you KNEW? Why didn't you say anything?” Tony said jumping to conclusions.

“Tony shut up.”Nat turned back to Clint “Before the video showed us the last piece of the footage you already knew it was her, how?”

Clint sighed “lets just say I recognised her handy work.” he was seriously getting sick of everyone assuming that he knew everything.

Nat frowned and then seemed to realise what he meant. The rest of the group still looked mystified though so he decided to elaborate.

“She seems to be in the habit of hitting aliens in the face with bits of rock.” He explained “almost took down another one of the chariots right outside the tower.”

“Almost?” Nat asked.

“Well she hit it right in the head, but it wasn't enough to make it loose control.” he explained,“Besides she told me.”

“WHAT. She told you that she knocked a flying chariot out of the air and you didn't think it was important enough to tell us?” this time it was the captain that looked incredulous.

Clint rolled his eyes in frustration, this was getting annoying it wasn't like he knew everything.

“Of course I would have told you that. That's not the point. It was just something she said that confused the hell out of me at the time, but it makes sense now. I guessed it was her the moment I saw a rock hit him in the face. Besides it makes sense, that street is just around the corner from where she ran into me.”

Everyone was silent for a moment after Clint's explanation. Nat looked curious and broke the silence.

“What did she say?”

“I asked if she was just going to run off and take on the aliens by herself and hope she survives, she looked right at me and said 'Well that's worked just fine so far'.”

“Well I don't see how any of this really helps us at all, we still don't know who she is.” Bruce, who had remained thoughtful throughout the whole exchange, finally spoke up.

The focus that had been trained on Clint the whole time finally dissipated. Clint huffed as Nat squeezed his hand under the table. Thor was contentedly munching on his eighth wrap as if nothing had happened. Steve was leaning his head on his hand with his elbow on the table looking as though he was about to dose off again. 

…….

The ceiling was white and the room was well lit. As she looked around Artemis realise she must be in hospital. _Oh great._ There were several machines beeping beside the bed where she lay. She had barely registered all this when a voice broke the silence making her jump.

“Hello Miss, it is good to see you are awake, how are you feeling” The voice sounded kind and concerned, but there was no visible source.

“Um I'm fine...Who... Where are you?” Artemis asked, her voice was slightly hoarse.

“I am JARVIS, I am an artificial intelligence created by Mr Stark, I do not have a physical body as such but I run the tower for Sir.” The voice stated calmly, reminding Artemis of her mother in the way it spoke. “May I enquire as to your name?”

“Uh, I'm Artemis.” she replied. “Am I in Stark Tower?”

“Yes, Miss Artemis, you have been unconscious for about two hours. Agent Barton insisted that the doctors tend to your injuries immediately.” JARVIS said immediately.

“Who?” This was so weird, she sat up rubbing her eyes.

“Agent Clint Barton otherwise known as Hawkeye, he carried you in after the battle and seemed rather concerned for your well being. I should inform you that Sir has been informed that you are awake and says that he is on his way here as we speak.” the AI supplied helpfully, “A doctor is on their way to see you as well.”

……

By the time everyone arrived the doctor had finished and was leaving. Tony, Clint and Natasha entered while the rest of the team headed up to the common lounge to wait. Artemis was sitting up in the hospital bed.

“How are you feelin' kid?” the archer enquired.

“Just brilliant.” came her reply laced with sarcasm.

“Aww, kid don't be like that I was really worried” Clint joked clutching his heart in mock sorrow as he walked over to the side of the bed.

“Well you'd be the first, Katniss.” Tony snickered and she looked at him “Hey tin man, pass be my bag would you?”

“Hey how come I get tin man?” he said in a whiny kid voice as he passed it over.

Artemis shrugged “Hey I'm not the one going around calling myself 'Iron Man'” she said while she dug around and pulled out a chocolate bar. “Besides it would be Iron Maiden in my case and that would never work, everyone would expect me to fly around blasting 'Run to the Hills' over loud speaker.” She stated taking a large bite of her chocolate bar.

Tony and Clint were both laughing.

“Well its nice to see someone can match Tony in the nicknaming department.” Natasha smiled.

“Well Weasley, I must say you all introduce yourselves very well.” Artemis said in a mock congratulatory tone.

That brought on another round of giggles from Tony, Clint tried very hard not to laugh at the Nat's nickname but failed miserably.

Natasha smirked “Well we don't exactly know who you are either. Care to enlighten us?” she replied extending her hand “I'm Agent Natasha Romanov with S.H.I.E.L.D”

Artemis took her hand and shook it. “Artemis Black.”

Tony and Clint had both sobered up by now and introduced themselves more formally.

“So what did the doctor say? Any idea how long you'll take to heal?” Tony asked.

“He said I’m not allowed to put weight on my leg for two days... Why? Trying to get rid of me already?” Artemis stated dryly.

Tony shook his head and looked as though he was about to protest but Natasha spoke up again.

“So Artemis anything else you can tell us?”

Artemis was careful to keep her face as blank as possible. She wasn't sure she could trust them all yet. After all she had just broken the law by running away.

“What do you wanna know?” she asked carefully keeping her voice casual.

“Well we should probably contact your parents to let them know where you are and everything...” Tony began but trailed off when she shook her head..

“You don't need to worry about that.” Artemis said shaking her head making her meaning clear in her tone.

“Oh kid I'm sorry I...” Clint hesitated, “Is there anyone we should contact?”

“No” she stated firmly. “It's OK it's not because of the...” she waved her hand around indicating the current situation, “It's nothing new...” she finished.

“Well then… no reason to mope around here all day lets all go up to the lounge I wanna watch a movie.” Tony changed the subject suddenly. “You coming Kid? Wanna meet the rest of the gang?”

Artemis just started at him frowning “You were listening when I said I’m not allowed to walk right?”

“Sure you can, you just can't put weight on your leg but that's not a problem.” Tony grinned “So do you want a wheel chair, or do you wanna fly everywhere in one of my suits? What's it gonna be Iron Maiden?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait life has been hectic.
> 
> Please feel free to leave comments,  
> Enjoy


	4. Night Visions

_The wind was cold, Artemis remembered the day she tried to run away, to get away from the orphanage for good. She was caught, and dragged away kicking and screaming. The people in the street ignored the struggling twelve year old girl, walking by stony faced as she was shoved into the back of a van by the local authorities. There was the feel of the cold metal floor of the van and the sound as the door slammed shut, locked from the outside. Then she was at another orphanage, the kids looked just the same as everywhere she went, sad, lonely and abandoned. She slumped down on her bed and the lights went out. She looked up into the darkness and then there were ships flying out of it, small ships and fucking huge whale ships, shooting at everything in sight. The woman in front of her fell to the ground, blood pooling around her, her eyes looking up at Artemis in terror. The Chitauri kept shooting at Artemis and her limbs felt like lead, she couldn't move, couldn't run, couldn't dodge the shots that came flying at her. She felt herself falling..._

Artemis woke with a start, heart pounding, thrashing around but barely able to move she was so tangled up in the sheets. She fell off the side of the bed and the lights came on automatically just enough for her to see properly. JARVIS spoke up as Artemis took a deep shaky breath.

“Are you all right Artemis? You seem rather distressed.” the AI inquired with a tone of concern.

“Just a Nightmare.” Artemis took another deep breath before untangling herself from the sheets. “What time is it?”

“It is currently 3:05am, is there anything you would like? Everyone else is asleep at the moment however I can wake someone if you wish.”

“No that's OK, don't wake anyone.” Artemis said as she stood up, she stretched and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before reaching out and grabbing a soft blanket off the bed and throwing it over her shoulders.

Artemis left the spare bedroom Pepper had arranged for her and padded quietly down the hallway on bare feet and out into the common area, ignoring the slight tinge of protest from her injuries. She walked over to the open kitchen on the far side and put the kettle on. Rummaging around in the cupboards until she found what she wanted, she pulled out a large mug and a tea bags. The kettle boiled and she made her tea, reaching over to the fridge for milk and adding just enough to make it perfect, the way her mother used to make it.

Pulling the blanket closer as it slid off her shoulder, she walked slowly across the room and curled up on the couch in front of the huge TV. She picked up the remote and turned it on.

“Hey JARVIS can you put a movie on for me.” she dropped the remote back on the coffee table and leaned back sipping her tea.

“Of course.” JARVIS replied as the screen lit up and _Tangled_ began to play.

…….

Tony woke with a start, the images of his nightmare still hauntingly vivid running through his mind. The blackness of space and the Chitauri army above the portal, the inky darkness surrounding him as his suit failed and shut down no longer protecting him as he fell.

He slid out of bed slowly careful not to wake Pepper and left the room with the idea of heading down to his workshop to work on some new tech. He shook his head trying to shake off the bad dream as he made his way down to the common area to get a drink on his way to the workshop. The area was already lit dimly and the kid was curled up in a blanket on the couch watching a Disney film.

He walked over to the fridge and pulled out orange juice and poured himself a glass and trying to work out what he should do. Eventually he walked over and plonked himself down next to the bundle of fluffy purple blanket covered teenager.

“Couldn't sleep, mind if I join you?” he glanced at Artemis who shrugged.

“Me either.”

Tony hummed in response. “Yesterday was a pretty trying day.”

“So was the last ten years.” Artemis sighed softly and snuggled further into the blanket.

Tony thought about that for a while, the kid had told them the day before that she was in the system, or rather had run away after being in the system. He remembered what it was like as a kid growing up being shipped off to boarding school. Of course he knew now that his father had only been trying to give him the best, that he wanted Tony to grow up without having to fight his way to the top, but as a result he had grown up feeling like he didn't really have a family.

“Growing up on your own isn't easy.” he paused not really sure what he was supposed to say, “but then again it's been easier for me than most, at least I had people looking after me.”

“I guess we're kinda fucked up aren't we.” Artemis glanced over at Tony.

“Yeah well we're all a bit fucked up in some way or another.” Tony replied “you'll fit right in.”

There was silence for a while, in the background the movie kept playing, _and with every passing hour I'm so glad I left my tower, cos way down deep inside I’ve got a dream._

Tony would never admit it but he actually enjoyed Disney movies so he sat and watched the rest of the film. At one point he found himself being utilised as a head rest and squeaked indignantly.

“What, am I a pillow now?”

“Yep, your finest achievement, genius, billionaire and human pillow.” Came a slightly amused response.

Despite his protest Tony didn't mind in the slightest. When the credits began to play he got up and walked over to the kitchen, stomach grumbling as he realised how hungry he was. As he began to pull things out of the different cupboards to make pancakes Artemis padded over still wrapped in her blanket and settled down on a stool.

“Come to admire my culinary expertise?” he joked.

“Well look at that a pillow that can cook, now I have seen everything.”

“Are you questioning my cooking skills?” He pouted.

“Well I've never met a four year old who could cook before.” she snarked back.

Tony just laughed, it was nice to be around someone who was a match for his special level of sarcasm and who didn't expect him to grow up and be serious the whole time.

Before long the two of them were elbowing each other and laughing as they poured batter into a hot pan. They took turns flipping the pancakes, showing off as they caught them again in flick of the wrist. Artemis piled pancakes on her plate and topped it with ice cream and raspberries before pouring maple syrup over the lot.

The two of them sat down at the counter and dug in, nightmares forgotten.

“So where does a billionaire learn to cook pancakes?” Artemis asked.

“Well I can't actually cook anything else, but I wanted to surprise Pepper on her birthday so I got one of the top local chefs to teach me.” Tony admitted sheepishly.

Artemis snorted as she shovelled another spoonful of pancake and raspberries into her mouth.

“So anyway, I was thinking of heading down to the lab, wanna come see?” Tony asked, quickly changing the subject.

Artemis nodded as she shoved the last of her pancakes into her mouth and shoved the dishes into the little hatch that quickly swallowed them on a conveyor belt, presumably sending them off somewhere to be cleaned.

“Sure, lead the way Doc.”

.......

They reached the labs and Tony instructed JARVIS to open up one of the workshops that contained his damaged suits from the battle. As the walked in Artemis took in the sight of the work benches strewn with different papers and random tools with great interest. She had always loved the brief classes in school where she got to make things with her hands, it was one of the few times that school had seemed like it had a purpose, that they were putting what they had learned to a practical use.

On a table in the middle of the room was the rather damaged Mark VIII armour. Tony had the place decked out for repair and testing with a large open space in the middle of the room.

Tony clicked his fingers and the room lit up with blue holograms. He may have been showing off just a bit but Artemis didn't care, this definitely beat her old state schools shitty science labs.

DUMMY came over clicking in interest and circled Artemis like a watch dog.

“That's DUMMY, the first AI I created. Sorry he's gotten a little protective of me since Afghanistan.” Tony paused. shit. He hadn't meant to bring that up just yet.

Artemis had barely listened to the second part of what he said however. She was busy grinning playfully at DUMMY who seemed to have taken to her very quickly and was whirring happily.

“So what are you working on at the moment?” Artemis asked finally looking away from DUMMY to glance around the workshop again.

“Well, I'm starting to work on the plans for the Mark IX suit.” he said, waving his hands in a spinning motion making a hologram appear in front of him with the blueprints for the Mark VIII.

Artemis came over as he started to disassemble the blueprint and spin things around examining them.

“So what went wrong?”

Tony looked up puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“Well I'm assuming that little joy ride where you fell out of the portal wasn't on purpose.” she stated. “So something must need fixing.”

Tony stared for a second before realising and shook himself back to reality. “Yeah, I dunno what went wrong with that, JARVIS how did you go with the diagnostics?”

“I am as yet unsure as to the exact cause of the failure, Sir. However I believe it may be due to the changes in external pressure and gravitational forces caused by travelling through the wormhole.” The smooth British voice spoke up.

“Well there we go that's a start.” Tony began pulling up the suits life support systems on the blueprint and experimenting to see if he could make them suitable for outer space environmental conditions.

“So you need to make the suit so it will still work without an atmosphere or any gravity.” Artemis surmised walking closer to get a better look at the designs.

Tony glanced up, “Uh huh. Sometimes I forget how smart you are.” he grinned.

Artemis shrugged, “Being underestimated can have its own uses. Kinda sucks if you want recognition though.”

“I bet. Where did you get up to in school? You should be at least a few years ahead of anyone else your own age.” Tony asked curiosity taking over.

“I dunno, no one ever took any notice. After all _what would a stupid little orphan know about Quadratic equations_.”

“Ouch that sounds like a quote.”

Artemis grimaced, “The principle didn't take to kindly to a seven year old correcting the maths teacher when he completely fucked up the problem for the tenth grade class I had detention in.”

Tony grinned, “People are always so indignantly protective of their stupidity.”

“I ended up just skipping class and doing everything myself.” she smiled sheepishly. No one else knew about her escapades into learning beyond the stupidly basic classes she was supposed to attend. Eventually Artemis had become sick of being ignored every time the teaches asked a question that she knew the answer to, or punished for pointing out the teachers mistakes and had taken it upon herself to learn as mush as possible.

Tony was once again impressed however for some reason he was not particularly surprised. He swiveled the blueprints in his hands before balling them up and tossing them over his shoulder. He clapped his hands together and smiled.

“OK Rapunzel, time to see what how quickly you can pick up the basics, what do you wanna make?”

…….

Pepper walked out of the elevator towards the door of Tony's workshop. JARVIS opened the door for her and she walked in expecting to find Tony absorbed in working of his suits or one of his other inventions. It was getting towards late afternoon and he needed to eat and join the other avengers to discuss the repairs of the city and the many other issues on hand. Instead what she found as she entered the room was much more interesting.

ACDC was blaring loudly over the speaker system while Tony and the girl Artemis were playing a very competitive game of something that looked like a cross between hologram volley ball and ping pong. At the same time Tony seemed to be teaching her rather advanced science of some kind. Pepper watched them for about a minute before either of them noticed she was there. When they did Artemis took advantage of Tony’s distraction to nail him in the face with a small ball that dissolved upon contact.

Tony looked up at Pepper and grinned, “Hey guess what Pep?” He was in one of those fits of childish excitement that meant he had just made a breakthrough with something.

“With that face Tony it could be anything” Pepper sighed, meanwhile Artemis tossed the last ping pong ball at a target on the other side of the room getting a bullseye.

“We just designed a new iPod, no wait, we can't call it that, they are shit in comparison.” Tony turned to Artemis, “what are we gonna call it?”

“How about the _Opal_.”she replied after thinking “we could make the casing so that it shines different colours like an opal, that would look way cooler that the stupid black that Apple use.”

Tony nodded enthusiastically and pulled up a hologram to design the casing for the device.

“Besides, there is no way in hell that we are calling it a StarkPod.” Artemis teased as she played with a picture of cut opal before rendering it into the shape of the device so that it looked as though the it was made of the stone, reflecting the different colours beautifully.

Pepper laughed before remembering why she came down to the workshop in the first place.

“OK kids, as wonderful as this all is you are needed on the common floor, everyone needs to work out a few issues from the invasion.” she waved them towards the door insistently. “besides you both need to eat.”

…….

The common area was slowly filling with the various members of the team as Artemis followed Pepper out of the elevator and down the corridor. Tony followed behind talking non-stop to JARVIS about constructing an _Opal_ immediately. Pepper in her infinite wisdom had made sure that both of them got dressed as they had still been in their pyjamas when she hustled them from the workshop.

The counter was piled high with food and everyone was helping themselves. Artemis recognised Hawkeye and Black Widow sitting together on a large armchair, as well as the Captain and the big burly blond dude who for some reason was still wearing his red cape. The rest however were unfamiliar, there was a man with curly brown hair in a purple shirt, talking to a woman with shoulder length light brown hair who was standing next to blondie. Standing across the room was a tall scary looking man with dark skin and eye patch who was talking to a woman with dark chocolate hair pulled back in a bun. The scary dude had a huge leather coat and the woman had a S.H.I.E.L.D logo on the shoulder of her jacket.

Artemis continued to glance around as Pepper led her and Tony over to the food and ordered them both to eat. Tony pouted but grabbed a few pieces of pizza, Artemis took a cheese burger and a can of soda. She was then bombarded by a friendly girl with dark brown curls, red lipstick and glasses.

“Hey, can you pass the chopsticks?” she beamed, Artemis reached over and grabbed a pair passing them to her.

“I'm Darcy, by the way, Jane's intern.”

“I'm Artemis. who's Jane?”

Darcy pointed to the woman who Artemis had noticed with blond cape dud, “So what brings you here?” Darcy asked around a mouthful of her Chinese.

“Food.” She stated taking a bite out of her burger, "Also Pepper practically frogmarched us from the lab." Darcy laughed.

The two of them wandered over and slumped down on the couch next to the chair where Clint and Natasha were slouched comfortably over one another.

“Hey mini-me.”

“Hey girl on fire” Artemis then nodded to Nat in greeting “Weasley.” Darcy stifled a chuckle at the nicknames.

Artemis finished her burger and drink quickly. She got bored and pulled a few rubber bands and a small piece of soft leather that she had snagged from Tony’s lab out of her pocket, pulling a bobby pin out of her hair and bending it into a Y shape. She then attached the rubber bands to the leather and looped them onto the ends to the bobby pin to create a miniature slingshot. Clint was watching her with interest as she pulled a few pieces of rubber slightly smaller than a marble from her pocket and fitted one into the slingshot.

“Pick an Avenger.” she said to Darcy who was oblivious to what she had been doing while still intent upon savouring her box of Chinese.

“Um, Captain America, Why?”

She turned to Clint and winked before taking aim and firing the small projectile across the room.

“FUCK!” Steve jumped a foot in the air and grabbed his backside.

Artemis smirked and whispered “Bullseye.”

Meanwhile Clint was trying to stifle his laughter. Nat elbowed him trying to shut him up. Darcy glanced at Artemis over the top of her box of Chinese giggling. Half of the room had turned at the commotion and were either laughing or staring at Steve, or in Steve’s case looking around trying to work out who had hit him. His gaze landed on Clint who was laughing openly and he glared at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this has taken an age to get done, Life has been full on and is just slowing down a bit, another chapter should be up soon :)
> 
> I hope your all enjoying the story so far, I have more to come in the future.
> 
> please leave comments ect. let me know what you think. :D


	5. Smart Arse

Artemis' poker face was so good even Natasha was impressed, the slingshot had vanished back into her pocket and Artemis looked as though she was giggling at something Clint had done not the other way around. Clint however only laughed harder when Steve glared at him.

Once everyone had settled down after the incident, the rest of the crowd gathered around. Director Fury stood up and addressed the group at large.

“I know some of you may be pissed off that I didn't tell you this earlier, but Agent Phil Coulson is alive and currently recovering with the aid of some of S.H.I.E.L.D's top medical experts.”

There was an instant commotion, Tony looked really fucking pissed indeed and he wasn't the only one. Steve was pretty sure that the only people who seemed unaffected by this news either didn't know who they were all talking about or had already known about this.

It took longer to get everyone back under control the second time and Pepper had to get up on the coffee table and shout at everyone to “shut the hell up!” Darcy was still muttering something about an iPod thief.

“Look, as wonderful as this news is and as annoying as it is that it didn't come a bit sooner, we can all go visit Phil later.” Pepper said once everyone stopped talking. “For now we have a lot of important issues to discuss, and frankly we can't waste any more time shouting at Director Fury right now.”

There was silence for a moment before Steve spoke up, “Miss Potts is right we need to focus on the issues at hand. The reconstruction of New York is a priority at the moment as well as setting up support for those who have lost loved ones and homes.”

There was a general rumble of approval from the group.

“Is anyone going to mention the problem that the majority of New York is currently blaming us for the attack?”

Artemis suddenly had the attention of the entire room focused on her but to her credit she didn't seem in the least bit phased by it.

“Seriously come on, have none of you watched the news on the last 24 hours. Opinions are like arseholes at the moment, everyone's got one and barely any of them are anything bordering on intelligent.” She said to the room at large.

There where a few snickers and Clint looked amused “Have you ever met an intelligent arsehole before?” he asked.

Artemis raised an eyebrow, “I thought you'd met Tony.” she stated with a hint of dry amusement in her tone.

There was an outburst of laughter and Tony looked affronted but then grinned wolfishly. “Fair point.” he nodded with a chuckle.

Pepper cleared her throat gaining everyone's attention again.

“Artemis is right, we need to get the public opinion back on our side so that we can be the most effective in aiding the clean up of New York. Stark Industries can contribute to the rebuilding of the city as well as through other areas. But for now we need the team to get out in the public eye and be seen helping the city. I've organised a press conference far all of you though you don't necessarily have to answer too many questions, well organise official statements for anyone who isn't comfortable battling the press. As well as this I have got the marketing team working with footage of the battle showing that you guys were there minimising the damage and fighting against the invasion, hopefully once it airs it should help get rid of any doubts as to everyone's involvement.”

There was a little more discussion after Pepper finished her speech before the room was dismissed to carry on with their day as they pleased.

Artemis asked JARVIS if an _Opal_ prototype was ready yet as people began to leave the common area, receiving a confused glance from Darcy.

“I'm not an expert, but I thought an opal was like a stone or gem or something.” She said.

“It is,” Artemis said turning to Darcy, “but it is also the latest invention to come from Tony’s lab.”

“There is a prototype for the _Opal_ on its way up to you right now Artemis, the device has just been completed less than five minutes ago.” Came the cool British voice in response.

Artemis grinned at Darcy when an intern arrived carrying a small white box and she leapt up to go get it. In her haste she forgot about her injuries and winced as pain shot trough her thigh at the sudden violent movement. She tried to ignore it and took the box from the intern with a smile, thanking him.

As she turned to head back to the couch she found Captain America watching her with a furrowed brow. She realise too late that she was limping as she was intercepted by six feet and two inches of towering muscles and concerned expression.

“I thought you weren't allowed to walk for two days.” He said with a pointed frown.

Artemis winced guiltily, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Kinda got a bit distracted...”

He helped Artemis walk to the couch despite her protests that she was fine, giving her big blue puppy dog eyes when she tried to resist his help. When they sat down Artemis returned her attention to the box in her hands. The thin white card was pristine and new, Artemis opened it carefully and found a smaller plastic rectangular case, she pulled it out and opened it.

The _Opal_ was on top and Artemis removed it from the case carefully, underneath the small tray it sat on she found a pair of high tech Stark Industries earphones and a charger cable.

As she turned the device over in her hands Darcy gaped. “That is so cool.”

Steve looked curious, “What does it do?”

“Well pretty much anything I want.” Artemis said as she pushed the button on the bottom to turn the device on. “JARVIS have you been uploaded.”

“Indeed Artemis, Sir thought it would be expedient for you to have me available. The prototype is yours to keep and Sir has also instructed for a separate division to be created in case of sales of the product that will be in both of your names, Sir has further instructed for all and any sales profits to be put in a trust fund in your name.” JARVIS stated matter of factly from the clear speakers of the new _Opal._

It took Artemis a good ten seconds and Darcy laughed at the look on her face for her to realise that her mouth was hanging open. The screen had lit up and she couldn't wipe the grin off her face. Pepper who was nearby heard JARVIS explaining these details to Artemis and walked over smiling.

“Did you know about this?” Artemis asked looking up.

“No but I was hoping he would do something like that.” Pepper smile warmly.

Artemis spent the next hour entertaining Darcy and Steve with her invention. The casing shone like cut opal just as Artemis had predicted and looked awesome. With JARVIS practically having part of his mind in the _Opal_ Artemis had access to him all the time, it also provided unlimited access to whatever films, TV shows or music she wanted by accessing the unlimited virtual library of Stark Tower.

Darcy was almost drooling and Steve looked mildly mystified but still rather impressed as Artemis set the _Opal_ down on the flat surface of the coffee table and hit play, the inbuilt speaker was suddenly filling the entire room with _Back in Black_. Artemis grinned and picked it up again.

Eventually she stopped showing off and put it in her pocket, she got up and walked over to get more food, this time she grabbed a platter of sushi and headed back to the couch.

“Help yourselves.” she told the others as she sat again noticing Steve's frown again “What?”

“You're still limping, you really shouldn't be walking.” he replied with a tone of concerned disapproval.

“Fine I’ll go invent a pair of flying shoes next.” she muttered stuffing her mouth full of teriyaki chicken sushi.

Steve huffed while Darcy giggled “You should totally try to make some, that would be beyond awesome.” she grinned, “think about it you'd never have to walk up stairs again.”

“Honey stairs are the least of my problems. It could be handy for fights though.” Artemis stated thoughtfully. “When you get surrounded you could just fly up and kick their arses from above.”

“or you could just run away.” Darcy stated matter of factly.

“Nah, what's the point in that, the bastards wanted a fight, may as well teach them a lesson in respect.”

“You're crazy, what do you like getting punched or something?” Darcy asked incredulous.

Steve had been quite for a few moments during this exchange and now looked a mixture of nostalgic and morose.

“Bucky.” he muttered under his breath with a soft sigh.

Artemis turned to him. “huh?” she managed through a mouthful of sushi.

A sad smile played across Steve’s face as he looked up, “Bucky said that to me the day my life changed. He said, _Sometimes I think you like getting punched._ A few hours after he'd pulled me out of a back alley, I got accepted into the army by Dr Erskine for Project Rebirth.” he sighed.

Steve shook himself out of his reverie after a moment and the conversation veered back to the flying shoes.

“It wouldn't really work if there was any kind of roof though.” Artemis stated. “like the one time I got beat up on the subway platform.”

“Jesus, that's why I carry a taser.”

“Well I did get about fifty bucks out of it so it was kinda worth a few bruises.” Artemis shrugged.

“How exactly did you get fifty bucks from being beat up on the subway?” Steve inquired with confusion, which was becoming a permanent feature of his expression.

Artemis grinned, “Well there were these three thugs, they were really incredibly stupid because they decided to jump me when it was kind of obvious I didn't have anything. I was just looking for somewhere to sleep. Anyway they surrounded me and one of them shoved me up against the wall. They must not have expected any fight from some twelve year old kid though... So I pick-pocketed him without him noticing before I kneed him in the balls and pushed him onto the tracks. The other two freaked out and were so busy trying to get him off the tracks that by the time they did I had disappeared.”

“OK remind me never to get on your bad side.” Darcy grinned.

“Wait. You pushed a person onto the tracks? He could have been hit by a train.” Steve looked slightly shocked.

“Dude calm down, there was at least twenty minutes until the next train, they were just to thick to realise that. I'm not that much of a psycho.” Artemis reassured him. “Besides I was starving. I got a few weeks worth of meals out of that idiot.”

“Hang on a minute.” Darcy's eyes widened “You were homeless when you were twelve. Fuck.”

Artemis squirmed under the sudden attention, she preferred not to talk about it for this exact reason. The pitying stares she received made her uncomfortable. In truth the two weeks she had spent on the streets had been a highlight of the last ten years, she had felt free and independent. There was no one ordering her about, and she was free from the constant stream of hostility she received both at school and the orphanage.

“Not exactly.” she grimaced. “I kinda ran away… I lived on the streets for two weeks before the cops caught me and...” she trailed off not really wanting to finish the sentence.

Steve noticed how she stared at the floor, subconsciously rubbing her wrists as if remembering the feel of handcuffs. Just thinking about it made him so mad. He changed the subject to try and ease the tension in the atmosphere around them.

“So what is sushi?” he asked putting on an innocent expression and reaching for the platter.

Artemis stared at him, “You're kidding right?”

He smirked “Yep.”

“You should try the green stuff.”

Tony had appeared next to them, grinning when Steve popped the Wasabi in his mouth without hesitation. Nothing happened. Artemis laughed when Steve raised an eyebrow at Tony and smiled innocent as a kitten.

“Something wrong Stark?”

Tony cursed, “Fucking super soldier serum.” Then his eyes landed on the open box sitting on the coffee table and his grin widened.

“Ah so you got the prototype?” he asked eagerly.

Artemis nodded as she pulled the _Opal_ out of her pocket to show Tony. At the same time she accidentally pulled out the mini sling shot as well and smirked when Steve saw it. She handed the _Opal_ to Tony with a smirk. 

“You'll have to be a bit more subtle than that to prank the Captain, Tony.”

Tony glanced from the slingshot in her hand to the look on Steve’s face and bust out laughing shortly followed by Darcy.

Steve’s eyes widened in realisation, “You.”

“Uh huh.”

“You little shit.” he exclaimed.

Her smirk widened “You didn't seriously think it was Hawkeye did you?” Artemis chuckled, "besides, you can talk."

“Smart-arse.” Tony said ruffling her hair.

“Looked in the mirror lately?” She replied without a beat.

From across the room Artemis could hear the sounds of Clint snickering in the vent, she glanced around causally and plucked another piece of rubber from her pocket before sending it sailing across the room and bouncing off of the grill. There was the sound of a loud thump followed by an audible string of curses as Clint jumped in surprise and banged his head in the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
> 
> lots more inventions coming in the future.
> 
> as always please feel free to leave comments ect. ;)


	6. Distractions

Artemis woke with a start from another nightmare, the room was dim and light was slowly filtering through the floor to ceiling windows on the left of her room. She reached out to the bedside table feeling the ache in her shoulder from where the energy blast had hit her as she stretched to pick up her _Opal_. Wincing she hit a button lighting up the screen revealing that it was around 6am.

She flopped back onto the mattress with a groan still exhausted from her injuries and lack of sleep. Pulling the _Opal_ close to her face she opened the music app and instructed it to play through the inbuilt speaker system in her room. She then sifted through the extensive music library and began compiling a playlist. Music filled the room just loud enough to chase away the nightmares but she still couldn't sleep.

Instead she began playing with the other features of the device, sifting through the photos she had managed to snap the day before without anyone noticing.

She couldn't help but giggle when she found the one that she had covertly snapped of Steve’s reaction to finding out she had pranked him. That one was definitely a keeper. There were others as well, Tony and Pepper, Darcy, Jane and the big blond dude who was apparently called Thor. Looking back at the photos fondly she realised that she had started to regard the team with a mixture of respect and friendship that bordered on the closest thing she had had to a family in a decade and shook herself at the thought.

She had to stop thinking like that; she had no idea how long they would let her stay, why should they waste their time on some orphan kid off the streets when there were aliens and wars to deal with. She couldn't get attached.

Artemis spent the next few minutes searching through trying to find a game to play. There were plenty of course, lots that sounded interesting becoming characters and going off on adventures. However Artemis was living her own real life adventure that had turned out quite different than she had expected. Instead she went for something more just to distract her from her own thoughts than anything else and went with _Subway Surfers_. Eventually her eyes began to droop and she drifted off to sleep to the sound of _Back in Black_.

…….

When she woke again Artemis was relieved that it was not as a result of another bad dream. The room was still dim but she soon realised that was as a result of JARVIS tinting the windows rather than from any lack of daylight.

The _Opal_ was still in her hand and after a moment she checked the time finding that it was now around 11am. Feeling much better for the uninterrupted sleep Artemis eventually dragged herself out of bed and into the en suite bathroom.

By the time she was showered and dressed she was fully awake. She brushed the tangles out of her wet hair and dried it off some more before pulling it to the side in a simple plait, the auburn locks reaching down past her shoulders. Leaving the solitude of her room she set out in search of breakfast.

……

The common area was relatively vacant except for Pepper, while the guy with curly hair whose name Artemis had forgotten, was making waffles. He promptly offered her some with a smile and she accepted with a nod, unsure of whether she was intruding.

Pepper smiled, “Help yourself to whatever you like, tea and coffee are over there.” she gestured towards a cupboard.

“Thanks.”

Artemis began to make herself a cup of tea. As she finished Bruce set a plate of waffles in front of her with a smile.

“You’re looking better this morning, how are you feeling?” he asked.

“Um, better I guess.” she replied, as she piled raspberries and maple syrup onto her waffles.

There room was quiet with only the clinking of cutlery for a moment before Pepper spoke up. “I managed to find a few documents that you may want.”

Artemis sent her a curious glance and raised an eyebrow inviting Pepper to continue.

“I managed to find the orphanage that you mentioned yesterday when we spoke, they still had your birth certificate on file. I have it here.” she passed over a file for Artemis to take.

Artemis' brain was taking a moment to catch up, she had just about given up any hope of finding anything regarding to herself that she still wanted to see. With all the transitions most of her original information had been lost in the system.

A grin spread across her face as she took the file from Pepper and opened it murmuring her thanks. A large part of her had been wondering if the documents contained any information about her relatives, however she also knew that if she had had any known relatives, there was at least some probability that she wouldn't have ended up in care. Either way she would be happy just to have proof that she existed as it would have been exceedingly difficult to do much without it.

Despite this she still felt a sinking feeling in her chest when she finally read the document in front of her. Her name and date of birth were clearly printed as were her mother’s details however the space for her father was completely blank.

Pepper's chuckle pulled her attention back to the present and she looked up curiously too see Pepper smiling.

“Your birthday is the day before Tony’s.”

Bruce was looking at the certificate with interest. “Do you know who your father is?” he asked.

Artemis shook her head “It was only ever me and Mum, I have no idea who he is.”

“Do you want to know?”

“Well yeah I guess, I don't really have anywhere to go, but he's probably dead already. Besides I have no way of finding out so it doesn't matter.” Artemis shrugged and took another bite of waffle.

“That's not entirely true. Tony has some of the most advanced technology in existence, not to mention almost unlimited resources and connections; he may be able to find a way. Don’t you think Bruce?”

The man removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose thoughtfully.

“Well it's definitely possible, we could have a go, but it's up to you.” he said to Artemis.

……….

 

Artemis made her way down to the labs lost in thought, when she reached Tony’s workshop she shook herself mentally and made her way inside trying to distract herself from her thoughts. Pepper’s presentation of her birth certificate had been quite a surprise and she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that it was not lost forever after all. The main question that was weighing on her mind however was why her father was not listed on the document.

It didn’t make sense to her; she had been sure that her mother knew who it was but why not say? Artemis had strained her memories trying to find a name or something to explain it but had come up short.

As she entered the workshop Tony looked up and grinned when he saw her. “Hey Rapunzel, you’re up early.” Artemis smirked at the nickname.

“Of the two of us, which one is the princess who lives in a tower?” she quipped.

Tony laughed, “Point.” He nodded waggling a finger in her direction. “So, any more ideas for stuff we can make.” He asked enthusiastically clapping his hands together.

“Darcy wants me to make flying shoes.”

“Something tells me you’ve already started.” Tony grinned.

“I was thinking something like this.” She tapped the _Opal_ a few times and flicked her hand up bringing up a basic design for the boots she had done the night before.

They were black leather and came a few inches above the ankle, the foot was enclosed and the leg was in two parts, one piece of leather wrapping around almost the entire leg while the other covered the front. The two pieces were buckled together with two straps that went around the leg bucking on the outer side. Into the soles she had indicated a place for miniature propulsion system similar to the ones in Tony’s suit.

Tony's grin widened as he spun the hologram around examining the basic design. “You got the placement pretty much spot on, calculating the weight and balance requirements. We can easily miniaturise the system I have in the suit to fit. We’ll also have to design flight stabilisers of some sort to go with it.” He gibbered happily.

Artemis pulled up another design she had begun the night before for the stabilisers and continued to work on them with Tony’s help. The stabilisers were small and worn like jewellery, the main section collapsed down into a wide cuff bracelet on each wrist, which flipped out onto the palm when activated and connected with rings on the middle finger, pinkie and thumb, centring a circular stabiliser on the palm of each hand. The cuffs were made partially of leather matching the boots with embossed decorative designs and small silver buckles.

When the structural design was finished on both the boots and the cuffs, Artemis became lost in the decorative designs she was completing and her mind began to wander back onto the topic she had been trying to forget. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t even realise Tony was talking to her until he snapped his fingers under her nose.

“Hello! Anybody home?” he laughed as she blinked and looked up in confusion.

Artemis shook her head rapidly, “huh? Sorry what?”

“I said, if you’re almost done JARVIS can have them made up and we can test them out.” He said with an amused smirk.

Artemis looked at the design in front of her and nodded, “Um yeah I’m done.” She grinned.

“Great, Hey Buddy can you have these made up for us, send them up when their done.” Tony instructed the AI. “Come on lets go get some lunch before Pepper shows up and has us banned from the workshop.”

…….

Artemis zoned out again while they were eating and Tony was curious what had the teen so preoccupied. He cleared his throat loudly after she sat staring at her sandwich for a solid two minutes making her glance up looking unfocussed and confused for a second.

“Something on your mind?”

“Why do you ask?” she furrowed her eyebrows.

Toy shrugged “You seem a little out of it today. You were starting at that design for a good five minutes doing absolutely nothing,” He giggled slightly “and you were just looking at the sandwich as if it was on trial for some heinous crime.”

“Sorry just got distracted.” She grinned sheepishly.

“Anything I can help you with?”

After a moment Artemis sighed and rubbed her eyes before focusing on Tony again.

“I don’t know I’m just confused I guess” she paused for a moment as if debating whether to go on or not. “Pepper found my birth certificate…”

“Oh, well that’s good right?”

“Yeah, I thought it was lost in the system, but it just hasn’t really solved anything…”

Tony just nodded for her to continue.

“I don’t know, I just thought he’d be on there you know…”

“Your dad?” Artemis nodded before continuing.

“I don’t get it, I always thought Mum knew who it was but then why wouldn’t she put it down. It doesn’t make any sense…”

There was a pause as Tony considered what he had just learnt and Artemis took a bite out of her sandwich chewing slowly.

Tony spoke after a moment breaking her out of her reverie. “So… Do you want to know who he is?”

“Well yeah, but that’s not really gonna happen, I mean he’s probably dead or something and even if he’s not, it’s not like I have any way to find out who it is.” Artemis sighed, not really wanting to mention what Pepper had said about Tony being able to help.

Tony’s mind was doing flips as he tried to work through the problem before him. An idea popped into his head and he grinned.

“Not necessarily.”

Artemis’ head snapped up and she stared at him for a moment, “What do you mean?”

“Well completely ignoring the fact that I’m one of the smartest richest people in the world and could probably trace him down by myself…”

Artemis rolled her eyes.

“But,” Tony continued grinning at her “I think I know a quicker and easier way that would also give me an excuse to visit an old friend of mine.”

Despite Artemis pestering him Tony refused to say anything else about it, just that he would look into it and get back to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so sorry that it took so long, My laptop crashed the day before my last two exams and then packed in completely, I wish I had Tony to fix it for me.  
> Also life has been pretty full as I was moving.
> 
> But here it is. I hope you enjoy and the next chapter should be up soon all going well. :)


	7. Catch me if you can

Dr Helen Cho was one of the foremost doctors in the entire world. Tony had hired her with the hope that with the resources he could provide, she would make huge advancements in medical knowledge. He had not been disappointed. Pepper on the other hand had hired her because with the unbelievable amount of injuries Tony managed to bring upon himself.

Now with the avengers making their home in Stark Tower and the constant flow of injuries that the attack had caused, Helen found herself in high demand. Her current patient however was not an Avenger but a young teenager. Helen had not been present in the first days of the attack and had therefore missed the multiple injuries that the invasion had resulted in.

The girl stretched out on the table in front of her had a deep cut healing on her thigh. The injury under normal conditions would have taken several weeks to heal. That however was without taking into account the latest developments Helen had made in her time at Stark Industries.

The regeneration cradle could regrow tissue. The brilliance of this new technology allowed for the healing of serious injuries in far less time than it would normally require. Though the cradle itself was not at Stark Tower, Pepper in her infinite wisdom had installed on a smaller version of the same technology that could be used in more practical application for the Avengers.

Artemis seemed to be equal parts pleased at the prospect of being back to normal, and curious as to how the machine worked. The teen had a streak of brilliance and curiosity that Helen admired. Helen also suspected that Tony had recognised the potential of the girl; If she new Tony even a little bit she was prepared to bet he would do something incredibly generous, if he hadn't already of course.

Tony was the sort of person that could and would change someone's life for the better in a matter of second, Helen new this from personal experience.

“So am I partly made of plastic now” Artemis asked with a cheeky grin.

“Technically no, but the tissue in your thigh was synthetically generated so you could say you're partly synthetic.”

“Will I still have a scar?”

“Normally with this technology there would be no scar tissue, however because the cut was allowed to heal partially before we used the machine to print the new tissue, there will be this time.” Helen replied

The machine beeped and Helen examined the area where there had previously been a deep cut. It seemed to have healed nicely, the only evidence there had ever been an injury was a dark pink line about four inches long.

“Well there you are, you're free to go. Try not to get into any more scrapes if you can.” Helen said kindly. The teen got up and stated her thanks as she left.

…….

Artemis was lying across Clint while they watched _Mulan_ with Natasha when an intern entered the common floor and JARVIS announced the arrival of a package for Artemis and Tony. She looked up from the TV and noticed the boy standing awkwardly at the end of the hallway with a big box. A grin to rival the Cheshire cat spread across her face as she leapt up to go get it only to be stopped when Clint jumped up and lifted her off her feet.

“Hey aren’t you still supposed to take it easy on that leg” he said as he lifted the giggling teen onto his shoulders.

She let out a disgruntled “hey” before wriggling around trying to get free, “that was fixed this morning.”

Clint walked over to the intern while she batted at his head softly in protest. She reached down to try and get the box but Clint grabbed it and somehow managed to hold it out of her reach while still not dropping the struggling teen onto the carpet.

The intern looked slightly amused by the antics and smiled when Artemis, while still trying to grab the package off Clint, leaned back to thank him before he left.

Nat laughed as Clint finally let the teen fall to the carpet only to be pulled down himself and poked in the ribs. The two of them continued to roll around on the floor giggling as they poked and ticked each other. In the midst of it all Tony entered the common area to see the archer being sat on by the teen and burst out laughing.

“JARVIS please tell me you got a photo of that.” He said between chuckles as the two of them sat up off the floor still grinning like idiots.

Artemis grabbed the package that had been abandoned on the floor and pulled it to her as the others gathered around to see. The boots they had designed that day before were packed neatly into half of the box while a smaller one took up the other half. The others watched as the teen pulled the boots out and immediately kicked off her shoes and pulled them onto her feet. Then she opened the smaller box to find the cuff bracelets and rings that made up the flight stabilisers.

“Ready to go test these out?” Tony asked.

“Hell yes.” Artemis was grinning ear to ear as she buckled the cuffs carefully around her wrists. They fit perfectly, as did the rings and she couldn’t wait to try flying about with them.

“Well come on then, we can’t do it here or Pepper will kill us.” Tony said putting out a hand and pulling the beaming kid to her feet.

……….

The four of them exited the elevator onto the floor of the tower that Tony had designed for training and workouts. There was a huge variety of equipment that catered to just about all of the Avengers. Artemis was eyeing the mats and gymnastic equipment with a look of delight and Tony noticed her smile widen when she glanced up at the ceiling and saw the network of bars ropes and rings hanging there in open invitation to the adventurous climber.

“OK then lets see if these work.” Tony’s enthusiasm was bubbling over.

The others pulled back towards the side as Artemis walked out into the middle of the mat covered floor. She looked down at the cuffs and flicked the activation on each one carefully keeping her fingers out straight as the stabilisers flipped out onto her palm and attached themselves to her rings.

Artemis moved her fingers in a sequence activating the boots with the inbuilt sensor controls on the cuffs.

The teen whooped as she lifted off the mat and rose slowly up before hovering in the air. Tony could see her fingers moving as she became accustomed to the sensor controls on the stabilisers. After moving around the space hovering upright for a few minutes she began to speed up as she leaned forwards and swooped around the room keeping herself balanced with her palms out.

After a few rounds Artemis managed to swoop back down and land in front of them. She had started out a little wobbly, Tony knew from his first few times flying that it took several test flights to be able to master the controls, but Artemis was a fast learner and had gained pretty good control already.

The teen was sporting a playful smirk as she suddenly reached out and tagged Natasha and said “You’re it Weasley.” Before taking off at a run and leaping up onto some of the spring boards and jumping from platform to platform. As she ran Artemis couldn't help the grin that spread across her face a finally being able to move without worrying about her injuries.

Clint was close behind her and ran for it jumping up and dashing across the room as Nat took off after him. Tony quickly got his own boots and gauntlets from one of his suits and flew up around the room trying to evade Nat as she chased everyone around.

Nat was close on Artemis’ heels when the teen jumped from the tallest block, activating the boots mid air and soaring out of reach up to ceiling where she managed to grab onto a bar that was bolted to the roof. She swung herself up expertly as she deactivated her flying equipment and dangled from the rafters upside down with her legs hooked into the bar cackling with laughter.

Clint was not so lucky and soon fell prey to Natasha’s manoeuvres. He took off after Tony, who immediately flew out into the middle of the room hovering away from everyone and smirked at Clint.

“Too bad bird boy.” Tony teased.

Clint cursed and changed directions launching himself off a trampoline and swinging off one of the rings hanging from the roof climbing swiftly up towards Artemis. She took the hint and began monkeying her way away from him across the roof. She managed to activate her boots again without turning up the power enough to fly before dropping from the ceiling with a whoop just as Clint got within reach. She dropped down to the floor slowing her fall with the boots before landing with a dive roll and springing to her feet again with a gleeful giggle.

“Too slow Katniss.” Artemis stuck her tongue out at him.

Clint cursed again but this time he managed to tag Tony as he swung off of one of the ropes and down to the ground. At the same time the elevator opened and Steve walked in closely followed by Thor.

Tony took advantage of the fresh blood and swooped down swiftly tapping Steve on the shoulder and shouting “you’re it” as he soared away.

Steve narrowed his eyes, “Oh that’s how it is huh.” He said before taking off after the Black Widow with all the speed of a super soldier.

His speed however was quickly evaded by the assassin who bounced around the equipment with the agility of a cat and quickly swung up to the roof.

Once Nat evaded his attempts to tag her Steve turned towards Artemis and charged. She just giggled and jogged out further onto the mat as he approached. Just before he reached her she jumped using the extra boost from her boots to spring over him; landing nimbly on all fours on the other side of him she took off at a sprint jumping up and soaring into the air grabbing onto a ring dangling a few metres from the ceiling. She swung upside down hooking her legs around the rope and waving down at Steve laughing.

The look on his face was priceless as he stared up at her mouth hanging open in surprise. She smirked at him before dropping from the ring and falling a few meters then flying around in a loop and coming to a stop just in front of him hovering a few feet above his head sending him a challenging grin.

“What’s the matter old man, am I too quick for ya?” she smirked down at him.

“So you made them.” He grinned back at her.

“Yup.” She said popping the P.

“Well this should be fun.” He replied before taking off after Thor who zigzags across the mats trying to avoid the Captain.

Steve managed to tag him and Thor in turn managed to catch Clint off guard. The game continued with Clint getting Artemis who then tagged Tony. There was a ridiculous amount laughing and cursing going on as Artemis managed to evade everyone for ten minutes without getting tagged again. The game finally ended when Steve charged, tackling the laughing teen into one of the huge soft mats that was made of several feet of soft foam with a triumphant “Gottcha”.

The rest of the team collapsed onto the mats around them as the pair rolled over a few times giggling and breathless before flopping back into the foam.

………..

“You should have seen his face”

Artemis stole another one of Steve’s chips when he wasn’t paying attention. Darcy was grinning as she examined the flying boots Artemis and Tony had made.

“Oh man this is so awesome, like you can actually fly now with these things?”

“Yep.”

“Old Spangles here got quite the surprise when our little protégée here jumped over his head.” Tony said as he flopped down across from them with a shit eating grin plastered across his face.

Steve rolled his eyes at the nickname that Tony was yet to grow tired of. Darcy and Artemis giggled at the expression before they were interrupted by Pepper getting the attention of the room.

“Right now that I have your attention, there are a couple of announcements that need to be made.” you could hear a pin drop as Pepper continued to hold the room to attention with a single look. “Now I think I am right in stating that everyone has recovered physically from the attack. With that in mind it is time we started to organise a more efficient system to help deal with the various recovery areas of the city. On another note there is also the matter of public support. I have organised a press charity event that will take place in a few days. I expect everyone to attend unless you have a _very_ good reason.”

Pepper's tone made it clear that nothing short of being in a coma would excuse the team from this event. The room returned to normal after that.

“So kid,” Tony said after a moment. “tomorrow we're going to visit that friend of mine to try and find a certain long lost parent.”

“Uh, OK.” Artemis replied, slightly stunned by the sudden statement. “where exactly are we going?”

Tony smirked deviously “You'll see.”

Artemis tried to send him a stink eye but he just made a face at her in return and she ruined the effect by cracking up. “OK fine.” she surrendered throwing her hands up in exasperation. “I guess we're going parent hunting tomorrow.”

“Well I mean we don't have to” Tony stated cheekily. “I mean I thought it was a generous offer and all but if...”

He was cut off by one of Steve’s chips hitting him in the face.

“Hey I was gonna eat that.” Steve was putting on a look of joking annoyance.

“Well did you want to listen to him any longer.” Artemis shot back raising an eyebrow.

“No, fair point,” Steve grinned “by all means help yourself to ammunition if he starts up again.”

“Besides,” Artemis continued, pointing across at Tony as he popped the chip into his mouth, “no waste.”

“Hey, I'm right here you know.” Tony called indignantly as the two of them cracked up.

“How did you know he would eat it?” Steve asked.

Artemis just shrugged “I would have.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm a horrible person, this was supposed to be up ages ago but I wasn't very happy with it so I re wrote a few bits. also life decided to get really hectic with it being Christmas and all and lots of stuff got in the way.  
> hope this chapter makes up for it a bit. :)
> 
> as always I hope everyone is enjoying the story.  
> leave you comments ect. or come chat to me on tumblr http://thewinter-huntress.tumblr.com/
> 
> p.s. There will be more chapters coming but they may take a while to get up.


	8. The School

Artemis barely slept. She was torn between excitement and terror at the prospect of finding any of her relatives. Though she knew there was nothing she could do about the result, it didn't stop her brain from running at a million miles an hour with all the different possible outcomes.

It must have been about three in the morning when the particularly unpleasant thoughts began burrowing to the forefront of her mind. She slipped out of bed looking for a distraction.

The floor was cold against her bare feet. She padded quietly down to the common area and set about making herself tea.

“JARVIS is anyone else up?”

“You happen the only one mad enough to be up at this time.”

Artemis laughed and took a sip of her tea as she headed towards the elevator.

Then the doors closed she looked up at the ceiling with grin. “Gym level please J.”

“As you wish Miss Black.” JARVIS stated, Artemis rolled her eyes as the lift began to descend.

When she exited the lift Artemis mentally kicked herself for leaving her new boots in her room. She would have liked to get some more practice at flying. She soon forgot however when presented with the room in front of her.

She spent a few minutes trying to remember the different tricks she had learnt in gym class at one of her many schools. After successfully managing a few dive rolls into one of the large soft mats she turned her attention to the roof.

It was harder to climb to the ceiling without flying but Artemis managed it just fine. She jumped from one of the tallest blocks and grabbed onto a rope that hung from the roof. Artemis focused all of her energy on the climb so as to push the thoughts she was trying to escape out of her mind.

The teen pulled herself up to the last bar with a huff. She hooked her legs over the bar and hung from the ceiling as she caught her breath. She could see the room below her upside down.

……..

The elevator doors opened again and Steve walked into the gym. He was tense and didn't glance up or notice the teen perched in the rafters. Steve walked over to the corner of the room where there was a punching bag waiting.

Artemis watched for a few minutes as the super soldier took out his frustration on the heavy bag. The sound of punches landing one after another in a low rhythm of thump, thump, thump was soothing.

Eventually she slowly swung her way back down to the ground and sat on the bench just off to the side of Steve. He still hadn't noticed her and she watched him for a few more moments before speaking.

“Well I guess I'm not the only one who can't sleep.”

Steve frowned “how long have you been sitting there?”

“I was in here the whole time.” Artemis said pointing to the place she had been sitting in the rafters.

Steve glanced up to where she pointed and nodded. “Oh.” he paused taking in her words for a moment “why couldn't you sleep?”

Artemis let out a hollow laugh “sometimes having a highly active mind isn't a gift.”

Steve nodded as he sat down next to Artemis on the bench. They sat in silence for awhile.

“How long is it since you woke up?”

“About three weeks.” Steve said looking down at his hands. There was silence between them for a moment before Artemis spoke softly.

“So three weeks ago you were in the middle of World War Two. Then you woke up in a different century to an alien invasion.” Artemis paused, “no wonder you can't sleep.”

“You know you're the first person to actually understand that.” Steve sighed “Everything has changed so fast and sometimes I just want to go home...”

“But home doesn't exist any more.” Artemis finished.

“I miss everyone from back home so much.” Steve’s voice was thick “I still can't get over the fact that a few weeks ago they were all right there and now pretty much everyone I knew is dead or about to die and has lived the last seventy years thinking I was dead.”

They sat in silence for a while before Artemis' mind started to fall back onto unpleasant thoughts. She rose from the bench and strode over to one of the punching bags. The first hit sent the bag swinging on its chain, the second landed with another satisfying thump.

Steve watched for a few minutes as the teen sent heavy blows towards the bag at a slightly alarming rate. Eventually he rose as well and made his way around to the other side of the bag, holding it still to stop it from swinging as she continued to rain down blows upon it.

“You know,” he eventually stated, “If you keep going like that you will probably break something.”

Artemis landed a few more punches before she finally stopped and leaned against the bag, sweat trickling down her forehead. Her knuckles were battered and slightly bloody but she paid no heed to them in favour of looking up. Dark blue eyes met light ones.

“Come on, if Pepper found us now she would have my head for letting you stay up.” Steve motioned them towards the elevator.

Artemis sighed and rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. Despite the fact that she was incredibly tired, she knew as soon as she tried to sleep her mind would go straight back to where it was before the workout.

“Shut up” Artemis muttered, “you're barely older than I am you can't tell me what to do.”

Steve huffed indignantly, “I'm ninety three.”

“Only when it suits you.” Artemis shot back with a grin.

………….

In the end Artemis did sleep. She had introduced Steve to Aladdin and had drifted off while the two of them were curled on the couch watching Genie introduce Prince Ali to the court.

Now however Artemis was awake and getting ready to go. Tony had promised to take her to see a mysterious friend who he said could possibly find some of her family.

Artemis entered to common area to see Tony and Pepper sitting at the counter eating breakfast. Tony waved her over with a grin.

“Hey kid, ready to go?” He asked as she sat down opposite them and grabbed some food.

Artemis nodded as she took a bite. “Where are we going?” 

Tony just smiled mischievously as he got up, “You'll see.”

………

The plane ride was short because of Tony's advanced tech, however to Artemis it seemed like a lifetime. Finally they began to descend and Artemis looked out of the windows. As the clouds parted Artemis was greeted with the view of green gardens surrounding an old fashioned mansion. 

The plane landed on the enormous basketball courts and Tony grinned as he stood and headed towards the exit of the plane. 

“Coming?” Artemis nodded as she followed him out of the small plane.

The two of them walked across the courts towards the mansion where they were met by a lady with short grey hair and tanned skin.

“Tony. Nice to see you again.” the woman said as she shook his hand.

“Storm, this is Artemis. Artemis, Storm.” Tony introduced the two.

The woman, Storm offered Artemis her hand with a kind smile. “lovely to meet you Artemis.” 

Artemis grinned as she shook storms hand and offered her a nervous “Hi.”

“Professor X is waiting for you both inside if you'll follow me.”

The three of them walked around the side of the mansion through the lush well tended gardens to the front doors. Artemis was jittery with nerves. This was not what she was expecting when Tony had said they might be able to find some of her family. Artemis had expected some sort of scientist with DNA tests and the like but instead they where in what appeared to be a boarding school of some kind.

Storm led them up a flight of stairs to a study and knocked on the large wooden door. The door swung open and she ushered them inside with a smile before turning to leave. “See you later Tony, it was nice to meet you Artemis.”

Inside the room there was leather armchairs and polished wooden furniture. An elderly bald man sat behind the large polished desk however as they entered the study he wheeled himself out from behind the desk and greeted them.

“Tony, how nice to see you again, and you must be Artemis, don't worry, technically I am a Professor of Genetics, I see you are wondering just how this is going to work.” the man smiled extending his hand. “Charles Xavier.”

Artemis stared at the man, Charles looking vaguely alarmed for several seconds before she relaxed and nodded.

Charles smile warmly at her, “Don't worry, I won't pry, I promise.”

Artemis nodded, “I appreciate it.”

“Well in that case I think we might as well just get straight down to it...Yes Tony you can come and see Cerebro as well.” Charles rolled his eyes fondly at Tony as he wheeled his way out the door, leaving the way to what Artemis hoped might finally be the answers she had been both seeking and dreading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so so sorry that it has been a year since I updated this fic.  
> I have had a crazy year of uni and just no motivation and have had the majority of this chapter sitting on my laptop waiting to be finished. Hopefully I will try to churn out the last few chapters soon so its finished.


End file.
